LOS ANGELES — After the NFL handed down a six-game suspension to Alton native Ezekiel Elliott, the Cowboys running back caught up with one of his closest mentors.

Elliott chatted briefly with Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk on the field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday before the Cowboys played the Rams in their second preseason game.

Faulk and Elliott stay in touch often. Faulk met Elliott five years ago when he was a junior at John Burroughs High School in St. Louis, where Elliott grew up watching Faulk play for the St. Louis Rams. The two also share the same agent, Rocky Arceneaux.

Faulk spoke at length about Elliott following their on-field exchange. He said Elliott is intelligent and “totally understands” he needs to mature and make better decisions. Faulk said Elliott has a strong support system around him. He said Elliott’s engaging personality sometimes puts him “in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Obviously, we all have to grow up in life and make mistakes, and sometimes some of those mistakes cost you dearly,” said Faulk, who was on hand to call the game for NFL Network. “It’s another thing of just understanding the magnitude of what’s around you and how things are.”

Elliott was born in Alton and attended elementary school there for two years before enrolling in a private St. Louis school. He later attended John Burroughs in St. Louis, leading the Bombers to the Missouri state championship game three times.

Elliott went to Alton elementary schools and lived on Brown Street in Alton. He also played basketball and ran track at John Burroughs.

Elliott’s father, Stacy, played football at the University of Missouri and his mother, Dawn, ran track at Mizzou. Dawn’s father is Leon Huff, a standout basketball player at Alton High in the late 1960s.

The NFL investigated Elliott for a year and last week suspended him six games to start the season because it found evidence that the running back physically abused a female acquaintance during the week of July 16, 2016.

Elliott’s representatives could eventually turn to the legal system to oppose the ruling.

In the meantime, Elliott has remained mum since the start of training camp. He was on the field warming up Saturday when Faulk approached him. Elliott didn’t play against the Rams.

Elliott also spoke with Faulk last week in Canton, Ohio, where the Cowboys played their first preseason game against Arizona.

Faulk said he wasn’t surprised by the length of Elliott’s suspension for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy.

Elliott released a statement late Friday that said, in part, that the running back is “far from perfect” and he will work hard to mature on and off the field.

“We’re not talking about a kid who is dumbfounded and doesn’t know,” Faulk said. “It’s not just about making the right decision, but when things start to go wrong knowing when to walk away. I say this to him often, this platform and this stage that you’re on, it’s bigger than you think. The Cowboys, the NFL, it’s bigger than Zeke. Sometimes it doesn’t seem fair. We all want it to be fair, but sometimes it’s not.”

Faulk has walked in Elliott’s shoes. Faulk was the second overall pick in the 1994 draft by Indianapolis and was later traded to St. Louis, where he was part of the Super Bowl champion “Greatest Show on Turf.”

The Cowboys drafted Elliott fourth overall in 2016.

“I was blessed. I went to Indianapolis. I was in a little city,” Faulk said. “I got to grow up without being under the microscope. But for him, it’s just understanding that you’re under that microscope and you’re not in college. It’s not Ohio State. It’s the NFL. Some of the things that you’re expected to know, you have to know them.”

Elliott has an active social life. He’s not the type of player who sits at home much. Faulk said that can unintentionally put a player in harm’s way.

“The circumstances sometimes and the choices you make sometimes put you in situations that even when you don’t do anything wrong, something wrong happens,” Faulk said. “After one or two incidents, people don’t care whose fault it is when you’re involved and that’s not fair but that’s just how it is.

“I always wonder, when you look at people walk around with bodyguards and they won’t talk to fans and they won’t meet people, we say mean things about them, how they don’t embrace their fans. But then when you get a kid who will engage with people and things happen, how can he be engaging with people?”